Friday 12 December 2025 - 11am Speaker: Deepshikha Behera (Edinburgh Futures Institute)Title: Bridging the Orality-Digitality Divide in Generative AI: Decoloniality in/and ‘Low-Resource’ LanguagesAbstract: In this seminar, I discuss the use of the term ‘low’ in ‘low-resource languages.’ Based on my experiments with Generative AI Translation for poems of resistance in dialects and ‘less-powerful’ languages of the Global South, I examine the limitations of these models, as they increasingly become embedded in our everyday use of digital platforms. I highlight the dangers of homogenisation of linguistic and cultural differences and biases reproduced by the LLMs modelled on experiences and epistemologies of the Global North. I examine the possibilities of bridging the existing gap by incorporating oral resources and inclusive speech technologies that redefine the manner in which ‘knowledge’ is produced and disseminated among marginalised communities. My focus lies in addressing the linguistic and cultural diversity latent within alternate ways of expression, such as orality and performance. I discuss the manner in which digitality could subvert the hegemony of print cultures and Western epistemology, albeit used ethically. In doing so, I propose a decolonial approach in the study of low-resource languages and the need for collaboration across scholars of NLP and Humanities and Social Sciences in developing models that are sustainable and inclusive.I look forward to suggestions from scholars working on biases in LLMs, speech technologies for low-resource languages and AI ethics.Biography: I am an IASH Digital Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. A comparatist working on untranslatability and language plurality in the Global South, I received my doctorate in 2025. I am a collaborator on the AI, Decoloniality and Creative Poetry Translation Project at the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Research Centre, University of Oxford. My postdoctoral project engages with the interplay of orality and digitality for 'low-resource' languages, AI translation, questions of AI ethics and creativity, and rethinks the notion of decoloniality in AI. I am a member of the Creativity, AI, and the Human cluster at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. I also serve as an Executive Committee Member of the Oral History Association of India, the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA)’s Research Development Committee. As one of the founding members of Comparatists in Conversation, a digital platform connecting a global network of scholars, I engage with interdisciplinary and collaborative interactions among early-career researchers. I have previously taught at the University of Hyderabad, India. Dec 12 2025 11.00 - 12.00 Friday 12 December 2025 - 11am Speaker: Deepshikha Behera (Edinburgh Futures Institute) IF, G.03
Friday 12 December 2025 - 11am Speaker: Deepshikha Behera (Edinburgh Futures Institute)Title: Bridging the Orality-Digitality Divide in Generative AI: Decoloniality in/and ‘Low-Resource’ LanguagesAbstract: In this seminar, I discuss the use of the term ‘low’ in ‘low-resource languages.’ Based on my experiments with Generative AI Translation for poems of resistance in dialects and ‘less-powerful’ languages of the Global South, I examine the limitations of these models, as they increasingly become embedded in our everyday use of digital platforms. I highlight the dangers of homogenisation of linguistic and cultural differences and biases reproduced by the LLMs modelled on experiences and epistemologies of the Global North. I examine the possibilities of bridging the existing gap by incorporating oral resources and inclusive speech technologies that redefine the manner in which ‘knowledge’ is produced and disseminated among marginalised communities. My focus lies in addressing the linguistic and cultural diversity latent within alternate ways of expression, such as orality and performance. I discuss the manner in which digitality could subvert the hegemony of print cultures and Western epistemology, albeit used ethically. In doing so, I propose a decolonial approach in the study of low-resource languages and the need for collaboration across scholars of NLP and Humanities and Social Sciences in developing models that are sustainable and inclusive.I look forward to suggestions from scholars working on biases in LLMs, speech technologies for low-resource languages and AI ethics.Biography: I am an IASH Digital Research Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities, University of Edinburgh. A comparatist working on untranslatability and language plurality in the Global South, I received my doctorate in 2025. I am a collaborator on the AI, Decoloniality and Creative Poetry Translation Project at the Oxford Comparative Criticism and Translation Research Centre, University of Oxford. My postdoctoral project engages with the interplay of orality and digitality for 'low-resource' languages, AI translation, questions of AI ethics and creativity, and rethinks the notion of decoloniality in AI. I am a member of the Creativity, AI, and the Human cluster at the Edinburgh Futures Institute. I also serve as an Executive Committee Member of the Oral History Association of India, the International Comparative Literature Association (ICLA)’s Research Development Committee. As one of the founding members of Comparatists in Conversation, a digital platform connecting a global network of scholars, I engage with interdisciplinary and collaborative interactions among early-career researchers. I have previously taught at the University of Hyderabad, India. Dec 12 2025 11.00 - 12.00 Friday 12 December 2025 - 11am Speaker: Deepshikha Behera (Edinburgh Futures Institute) IF, G.03
Dec 12 2025 11.00 - 12.00 Friday 12 December 2025 - 11am Speaker: Deepshikha Behera (Edinburgh Futures Institute)
